Gretta Tatyana Pecl AM is an Australian marine ecologist, Australian Research Council Future Fellow, and the Director of the Centre for Marine Socioecology (CMS) at the University of Tasmania. Her work focuses on species and ecosystem responses to climate change, as well as using socioecological approaches to adapt natural resource management for climate change. She is on the editorial board of Springer Nature's Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries,[1] and is a Subject Editor for Ecography.[2]

Gretta T. Pecl
Born
NationalityAustralian
Alma materJames Cook University (BS, PhD)
Scientific career
FieldsMarine ecology
InstitutionsUniversity of Tasmania
University of Alaska Southeast
ThesisComparative life history of tropical and temperate Sepioteuthissquids in Australian waters
Websitewww.utas.edu.au/profiles/staff/imas/Gretta-Pecl

Early life and education

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Pecl is from Tasmania.[3] She earned her bachelor's degree at James Cook University in 1994,[4] completing an undergraduate dissertation on the muscle structure and dynamics of Idiosepius pygmaeus. Pecl remained at James Cook University for her doctoral studies, earning a PhD in 2000.[4] Her doctoral thesis compared the life-history variation of two closely related cephalopod species, Sepioteuthis australis and Sepioteuthis lessoniana, on the east coast of Australia.[5] Her research continued into a Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and Australian Research Council postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Tasmania, looking at the movement of Sepioteuthis australis using acoustic location and trace element analysis.[4]

Research and career

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Pecl studies the ecology of climate change, in particular, what happens to wildlife in warming oceans.[6][7] She has primarily investigated the warming waters off the coast of Tasmania.[4] In 2009, Pecl founded the Range Extension Database and Mapping project (Redmap), a crowdsourced map which collects public sightings of fish, after attending a workshop and listening to fishers share information about recent sightings.[8][9] The project uses a team of scientists to verify submitted photographs, and can make people more aware of climate change as they notice repeated changes in their own environments.[9][10] Redmap was awarded the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales Whitely Award in 2010.[11]

In 2009, Pecl was awarded a Fulbright Program scholarship to join the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and study how climate change had impacted the red king crab.[3][4] The next year she was named one of the University of Tasmania's "Rising Stars".[12] She has formed an International Global Marine Hotspots Network (GMHN) with colleagues to bring users and managers of the sea together.[13] In 2015, Pecl was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship to study the physiological and ecological mechanisms that underpin the redistribution of species through marine systems.[14] In 2017, Pecl studied how the redistribution of land and fresh water species due to climate change affects human health, wellbeing, and culture.[15] These impacts include tourism, recreational fishing, and health threats such as malaria.[15] She served as editor-in-chief of Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries from 2014 to 2019[16] and an associate editor for Citizen Science: Theory and Practice from 2016 to 2020. She was elected to the Australian Society for Fish Biology Hall of Fame in 2016.[17]

 
Pecl presents at a scientific conference in Hobart, Tasmania, in 2016.

Pecl became the Director of the Centre for Marine Socioecology at the University of Tasmania in 2018.[4] The Centre is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the University of Tasmania, the CSIRO and the Australian Antarctic Division which aims to understand the interactions between the ecological and social aspects of marine conservation and management.[18][19] In 2021 she created the Future Seas initiative, which aims to encourage interdisciplinary scientific collaboration to improve society's capacity to manage ocean systems as part of the United Nations' Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.[20]

Pecl was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Sixth Assessment Report, responsible for the "Great Barrier Reef", "Oceans", "Tourism", "Marine food" and "Indigenous peoples" sections of the Australasian chapter, and the "Fisheries on the Move", "Indigenous knowledge & climate adaptation", and "Climate change & water borne disease" cross chapter boxes within the main report. The report is due to be released in 2022.[21]

Citizen science is a key approach to Pecl's research, and she is heavily involved in science communication and engagement.[22][23][24] Pecl has written three articles for The Conversation[25] to communicate her research regarding species' range shifts, the effects of climate change on Australian fishery species, and citizen science.[26][27][28] In 2020, Pecl helped develop an educational card game of Tasmanian marine species.[29] She has been involved in numerous public outreach events to educate stakeholders and communities on the impacts of climate change.[30][31][32]

Pecl was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2024 King's Birthday Honours for "significant service to science, particularly ecological research, and to tertiary education".[33]

Selected publications

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  • Pecl, G., Ogier, E., Jennings, S., van Putten, I., Crawford, C., Fogarty, H., Frusher, S., Hobday, A. J., Keane, J., Lee, E., MacLeod, C., Mundy, C., Stuart-Smith, J., & Tracey, S. (2019). "Autonomous adaptation to climate-driven change in marine biodiversity in a global marine hotspot". Ambio, 48 (12): 1498–1515. doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01186-x
  • Scheffers, B. R., & Pecl, G. (2019). Persecuting, protecting or ignoring biodiversity under climate change. Nature Climate Change, 9 (8): 581–586. doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0526-5
  • Pecl, G. T., Araújo, M. B., Bell, J. D., Blanchard, J., Bonebrake, T. C., Chen, I.-C., Clark, T. D., Colwell, R. K., Danielsen, F., Evengård, B., Falconi, L., Ferrier, S., Frusher, S., Garcia, R. A., Griffis, R. B., Hobday, A. J., Janion-Scheepers, C., Jarzyna, M. A., Jennings, S., Lenoir, J., Linnetved, H. I., Martin, V. Y., McCormack, P. C., McDonald, J., Mitchell, N. J., Mustonen, T., . Pandolfi, J. M., Pettorelli, N., Popova, E., Robinson, S. A., Scheffers, B. R., Shaw, J. D., Sorte, C. J. B., Strugnell, J. M., Sunday, J. M., Tuanmu, M.-N., Vergés, A., Villanueva, C., Wernberg, T., Wapstra, E., Williams, S. E. (2017). "Biodiversity redistribution under climate change: Impacts on ecosystems and human well-being". Science, 355 (6332). doi.org/10.1126/science.aai9214
  • Johnson, C. R., Banks, S. C., Barrett, N. S., Cazassus, F., Dunstan, P. K., Edgar, G. J., Frusher, S. D., Gardner, C., Haddon, M., Helidoniotis, F., Hill, K. L., Holbrook, N. J., Hosie, G. W., Last, P. R., Ling, S. D., Melbourne-Thomas, J., Miller, K., Pecl, G. T., Richardson, A. J., Ridgway, K. R., Rintoul, S. R., Ritz, D. A., Ross, D. J., Sanderson, J. C., Shepherd, S. A., Swadling, K. M., Taw, N. (2011). "Climate change cascades: Shifts in oceanography, species’ ranges and subtidal marine community dynamics in eastern Tasmania". Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 400 (1–2): 17–32. doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2011.02.032
  • Last, P. R., White, W. T., Gledhill, D. C., Hobday, A. J., Brown, R., Edgar, G. J., & Pecl, G. (2011). "Long-term shifts in abundance and distribution of a temperate fish fauna: A response to climate change and fishing practices". Global Ecology and Biogeography, 20 (1): 58–72. doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00575.x

Personal life

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Gretta Pecl is separated with two children.[34] She is on the advisory board of aKIDemic life, a free resource hub for academics with caring responsibilities.[35]

References

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  1. ^ "Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries". Springer. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  2. ^ "Editorial Board". www.ecography.org. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Pecl, Gretta - People and organisations". Trove. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Gretta Pecl - Profiles". Profiles - University of Tasmania, Australia. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  5. ^ Pecl, Gretta T. (2000). Comparative life history of tropical and temperate Sepioteuthis squids in Australian waters (PhD thesis). James Cook University. Archived from the original on 29 May 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  6. ^ University of Tasmania (4 June 2015), Changing Oceans - Gretta Pecl, archived from the original on 12 May 2021, retrieved 29 May 2019
  7. ^ ICES ASC 2019 - Keynote by Gretta Pecl, archived from the original on 12 August 2023, retrieved 6 July 2021
  8. ^ "Redmap". Redmap. Archived from the original on 29 May 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  9. ^ a b "Gretta Pecl: Climate Change in Coastal Waters". Ecology for the Masses. 31 October 2018. Archived from the original on 29 May 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  10. ^ Pecl, G. T., Stuart-Smith, J., Walsh, P., Bray, D. J., Kusetic, M., Burgess, M., Frusher, S. D., Gledhill, D. C., George, O., Jackson, G., Keane, J., Martin, V. Y., Nursey-Bray, M., Pender, A., Robinson, L. M., Rowling, K., Sheaves, M., & Moltschaniwskyj, N. (2019). "Redmap Australia: Challenges and Successes With a Large-Scale Citizen Science-Based Approach to Ecological Monitoring and Community Engagement on Climate Change". Frontiers in Marine Science, 6. doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00349
  11. ^ "2010 Whitley Awards". Australian Zoologist. 35 (4): 996–1004. 2011. doi:10.7882/AZ.2011.054.
  12. ^ "Gretta Pecl 2017". World Science Festival Brisbane. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  13. ^ "Executive Council » Australian Society For Fish Biology". www.asfb.org.au. Archived from the original on 16 March 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  14. ^ Australia, Women in STEMM (19 November 2017). "STEMM PROFILE: Professor Gretta Pecl, PhD | Marine Ecologist | University of Tasmania | Hobart |TAS". Women in STEMM Australia. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  15. ^ a b "Species on the move having a big impact". phys.org. Archived from the original on 29 May 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  16. ^ "Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries – incl. option to publish open access (Editorial Board)". springer.com. Archived from the original on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  17. ^ "Hall of Fame » Australian Society For Fish Biology". www.asfb.org.au. Archived from the original on 29 May 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  18. ^ "About us - Centre for Marine Socioecology". marinesocioecology.org. Archived from the original on 29 June 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  19. ^ Centre for Marine Socioecology. (2020). "Annual Report". Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. https://marinesocioecology.org/wp-content/uploads/CMS_Annual-Report-2020_Email.pdf Archived 29 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  20. ^ Future Seas (2021). "What is Future Seas?". Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  21. ^ "AR6 Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability — IPCC". Archived from the original on 18 March 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  22. ^ Pecl, G., Gillies, C., Sbrocchi, C., & Roetman, P. (2015). Building Australia Through Citizen Science Archived 21 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Office of the Chief Scientist: Occasional Paper Series, July (11), 1–4.
  23. ^ "Dr Greta Pecl on climate change, warming water, the fishing industry and the marine ecosystem". www.abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 18 December 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  24. ^ Pecl, Gretta (20 September 2012). "Gretta Pecl writes: value in the deep". The Mercury: Let's Make Tasmania Great Special Edition. Hobart, Tasmania: News Corp Australia.
  25. ^ "Gretta Pecl". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 29 May 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  26. ^ Hobday, Alistair; Fulton, Beth; Pecl, Gretta. "Warming oceans are changing Australia's fishing industry". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  27. ^ Vergés, Adriana; Popova, Ekaterina; Pecl, Gretta; McDonald, Jan. "Climate-driven species on the move are changing (almost) everything". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 29 June 2021. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  28. ^ Pecl, Gretta; Stuart-Smith, Jemina; Sunday, Jennifer; Moltschaniwskyj, Natalie. "How you can help scientists track how marine life reacts to climate change". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  29. ^ Redmap Team (2020). "Time to 'Go Fish!' – Redmap playing cards". Redmap. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  30. ^ "Wineglass Bay walk | Sci Art Walks". Sciartwalks. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  31. ^ Pecl, Gretta (2020). "This is how scientists feel". Is This How You Feel?. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  32. ^ Anderson, John. "Curious Climate Tasmania". Archived from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  33. ^ "Professor Gretta Pecl". Australian Honours Search Facility. Archived from the original on 9 June 2024. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  34. ^ "Interview with Professor Gretta Pecl on work-life balance". aKIDemic Life. Archived from the original on 29 May 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  35. ^ "Akidemic Life". IAMAS. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.